Curious circumstances surround June's hack of a national data center (PDNS II) and Nenden of Safenet, a premier CSO on online rights, joins the pod to help de-encrypt.  We discuss the safety protocols, the hackers' demands and where accountability lies.  Also: Erin and Kevin examine a momentous change at the top of the General Election Commission (KPU) and the implications for the president's younger son.  And finally: the president-elect's brother-in-law weighs in on building new capitals versus disbursing free lunches.

 For a free trial of Reformasi newsletter, go to reformasi.info

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

For a comprehensive overview of the dynamics unfolding in Myanmar, Erin and Kevin consult Apac Assistance analyst Ragyeshri Sudaroli, who underscores the imperative for expanding humanitarian assistance as violence displaces three million Myanmarese and counting. 

On Indonesia, the pod examines the odd willingness of hackers to unlock ransomed government data - supposedly for free.  Also: a proposal for anti-dumping tariffs on consumer goods from China, Prabowo's leg surgery and the sinking of the Electoral Commission (KPU) to yet another new low.

For a free trial of Reformasi newsletter, go to reformasi.info

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Thai politics and contingencies across its Myanmar border are among the topics discussed in our latest podcast with Kasit Piromya, a longstanding activist with ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and a former foreign minister of Thailand.  Khun Kasit has also served as Thailand's ambassador to over half-a-dozen countries, including the US, Germany, Japan and Russia.  He provides an update on the search for political consensus in Thailand and the implications for Thailand's stance on the ongoing Myanmar crisis.  He anticipates scenarios and issues a call for Indonesia to heed.  Also in this episode: Erin and Kevin discuss the political divide in Manila, the election maneuvering in Jakarta, and a Prabowo media overture in America.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

For a free trial of Reformasi newsletter, go to reformasi.info

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

The health consequences of suspended particles in Jakarta's air -- and safeguards applicable indoors -- come under scrutiny in this episode's interview with Piotr Jakubowski of Nafas, a provider of indoor air-quality monitoring and purifying.  Piotr explains the terms, trends and dynamics of air pollution -- while disclosing the results of an air test done in a quintessentially smokey Senopati bar.  Also: Kevin and Erin delve into the workings of Jakarta's gubernatorial election, cases embroiling Megawati's top lieutenant and signs of complications arising in the Nusantara Capital (IKN) project.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

For a free trial of Reformasi newsletter, go to reformasi.info

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

The Reformasi Dispatch podcast delves into turbulence in Thai politics with the director of the Regional Centre for Human Rights Studies at Isan's Ubon Ratchathani University.  Amid charges against Thaksin, a move to dissolve Move Forward and hunger strikes by political prisoners, Titipon estimates what might lie ahead, proximately and longer term.  And in Indonesian politics, Erin and Kevin review cabinet rumors and new policies on halal import certification and coal-mining licenses for religious organizations - as well as how the president and president-elect still remain 'in sync'.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Imminent excavation to divert part of the Mekong through Cambodia has alarmed Vietnam.  Is this a Chinese‑supported stratagem to use water a geo-political leverage?  Also, Erin and Kevin discuss high-stakes political wrangling over shipping containers detained at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port, and the rolling out of Wolbachia-treated Aedes Aegypti to combat dengue fever.  And finally, what Elon Musk can - and can not - offer Indonesia.

 Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Indonesia's parliament has returned to session and a flurry of bills reveals plenty about the designs of the allied outgoing and incoming presidents.  Among them, a 4th bill on a key judicial entity.  Also: Erin and Kevin discuss Singapore's change of government and the tragic passing of a Thai hunger striker.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Reformasi Dispatch conferred with Angus Mackintosh, an independent research analyst from SmartKarma and CrossAsean, on how innovation is unfolding in Indonesia.  Despite low research levels and an uncertain investment climate, artificial intelligence (AI) can close skill gaps and thereby help unlock Indonesia's long‑latent potential.  Erin, Kevin and Angus consider examples of ventures leading the process, along with the US$1.7 billion AI investment plan of Microsoft -- which would include infrastructure as well as one-month AI training courses for 840,000 participants over four years.  However, will the next administration regard foreign artificial intelligence as just another form of foreign intelligence?

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Prospects for foreign policy, domestic politics and democratization feature in our talk with the distinguished analyst and former advisor to President Habibie and Vice President Boediono, Professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the National Research and Innovation Agency (Brin). She extends the 'benefit of the doubt' -- or doubts -- but also highlights risks and concerns.  Also: Erin and Kevin discuss the latest, including a major investment pledge by Microsoft for AI tech, talk about expanding coordinating minister posts and the maneuvering ahead of major gubernatorial races in November.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

To assess the post-election process and anticipate what lies ahead, The head of Michigan University's Center for Emerging Democracies joins Reformasi Dispatch to discuss his new article in the Journal of Democracy. Are expectations of "continuity" valid?  Is the electorate prepared for how President‑Elect Prabowo will govern?  Professor Slater also touches on trends in Hun Sen's Cambodia.  Also: Erin and Kevin discuss PDI‑P's reaction to the Constitutional Court's rejection of electoral disputes, and how the AGO's targeting of an alleged mafia kingpin could prove particularly portentous.

Read Erin's newsletter Dari Mulut Ke Mulut here: https://darimulut.beehiiv.com/

Find Prof Slater's article here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/922832 

It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.

You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!